11 Chapter 11

Freydis did not like the way Svein Einarson looked at her. She had always admired powerful men, leaders, but in Einarson there was something almost completely bestial that hid under a very thin layer of human garb and behavior. It was not only about his enormous dimensions. His size did not frighten her - how often had she stood before the wide shoulders, giant statue and huge balled fists of Thorvard! No, there was a lustful glint, as if of a wolf’s eye, in Svein Einarson’s stare.

On the day Freydis arrived, one of the slaves made him angry by not leading the horses to the stables promptly enough. Einarson hit the slave’s head with his enormous fist, and the boy never got up again.

This kind of needless cruelty could not be made up for by handsome attire or the unusual attention Einarson paid to the cleanliness of his skin.

"You are unfair to our friend Svein," said Ingvar Haraldson when Freydis privately spoke to him of her repulsion. "It is true he is not quite, ah, refined in his behavior, but what do we care? Einarson has influence and power, and people fear to cross paths with him. That is just what we need to proceed with the plan. He is not even as stupid as most people would believe. And you cannot deny that he has taken quite a fancy to you. I think you have an admirer in him."

Yes, that was true, Freydis had to confess to herself reluctantly. Einarson desired her, and she could not deny it. Yet it was not the sort of admiration to soften a hard man. It was a wild desire that might have caused him to rip her clothes off her, if he hadn’t felt the need to restrain himself for a more urgent purpose. For the time being.

"The man kills his slaves as a way of amusement, Ingvar," said Freydis. Haraldson shrugged.

"This is something I fail to understand. Slaves fetch a handsome price these days, and a good serving man is as valuable as undiluted silver. But where does this concern for lowly men come from, Fredyis? You surprise me. You did, after all, attempt to get rid of your own husband."

Freydis scowled. "I did not attempt to get rid of anybody," she said. "I merely convinced the sailors to tie Thorvard up and turn the ship towards the coast of Vinland."

"I’ll bet he took that in his stride," nodded Haraldson, a smile of faint amusement on his lips.

Freydis averted her eyes. In her mind she saw Thorvard once more - a giant man roaring with fury, tearing the ropes off him with a mighty effort of his arms, throwing the rebels into gushing waters with no account of past service… and then turning his burning, fearsome glance upon her. Freydis averted her eyes. She hated that memory, mainly because she could not deny how impressive Thorvard had looked in his anger, compared to her as she cowered in fear before him.

"… Is there any gold or silver in this new land of yours?" inquired Svein Einarson, his small yellow eyes narrowed with greed.

"This I cannot say. I saw no gold or silver on the Skraelings, but this does not say much," admitted Freydis.

"Perhaps they hide their gold and silver in a safe place, and guard the mines carefully," Ingvar Haraldson put in. "At any rate, this is what we need to tell people to make them want to follow us. The promise of bounty is so tempting that the glint of a possibility alone will be enough to make people leave everything behind."

Freydis gave him a look of distaste. "Why do we need to lie? There will fertile land for all, plentiful fertile land for farming, and we offer them freedom to follow the Old Ways if they so choose. People followed my father even to Greenland in their zeal to escape unjust laws. So why would people hesitate now, when we offer something so much more tempting?"

"I’m sorry, Freydis, but few people followed your father," Ingvar corrected her. "The Greenland settlements are small, and you never have enough men. What we are planning is something of quite another scale, if I may remind you. Setting up a new kingdom will require massive immigration. The most important thing we must do is get as many people into Vinland, as soon as possible. Of course, once the settlement is established and people see how good the land is - if it is as you describe - no one will leave, even if land is all there is."

"And timber," added Freydis, "we could all profit from the timber."

"It is all well, as long as you don’t forget Svein Einarson," said their host, and Freydis noticed a subtle threat in his voice. "Svein Einarson, who is gathering the first, strongest group of men for you. Lesser men will follow, but I am helping you start. Remember that."

"And of course, our esteemed friend Svein Einarson," Ingvar added with a slight bow, and though Freydis could detect a hint of irony in it, Einarson seemed appeased. "Without you, the plan could never work. We have a glorious future ahead - all of us. The land is bountiful and all but empty… except for those Skraelings Freydis mentioned, but they will be destroyed. And people will have freedom - the freedom to live how our fathers lived."

"Brave men will certainly like it more than the weak Christian rule of King Olaf," grunted Einarson. "Half of Norway shall be swayed, too, once we gather our army and send our warships across the sea."

Quick as a lightning, Freydis turned her head towards Ingvar Haraldson and shot him a burning, smoldering look. No, he did not seem surprised. It appeared that Einarson’s words surprised no one but her. Suddenly she understood how uncertain her position is among these men, and she felt vulnerable.

"We talked of settling a new land," she said, "not of conquering an old one."

"Oh, but we are thinking big, Freydis, don’t you see?" Ingvar said serenely. "Founding a settlement overseas is a glorious design, but why should we abandon our homeland to a king who can barely hold the reins?"

This was it, realized Freydis. This was the reason behind all the secrecy. Her words were stuck in her throat. This was more dangerous by far than she had thought. They don’t just mean to sail away, they are planning a rebellion. And this notion was hidden from her until such a moment when she would no longer be able to protest, when she cannot get out of her connection with these men. If they are caught now and she is interrogated, who will believe she knew nothing? I wouldn’t.

Leif did not truly do her justice. Freydis was not quite so selfish. When the extent of the danger was revealed to her, she thought not only of herself, but also of what would happen to her mother and brother, should she be caught.

But as to Svein Einarson, Freydis had to admit: no matter how much she loathed the man, he was a true leader. People flocked to him, were swayed by his words. Freydis knew how to recognize leaders; she was the daughter of Erik the Red, after all, and sister to Leif Erikson. She could have been a leader in her own right, she thought bitterly, if only she weren’t a woman; then she wouldn’t have had to ally herself with men such as Svein Einarson and Ingvar Haraldson. She could have made it on her own.

When Einarson straightened up and stood tall and strong in the great hall of his house, a steady silence settled in the place of drunken laughter and bawdy song that reigned a moment earlier. He did not even need to clear his throat or thump on the table to gain everyone’s attention. All looked at him, as if mesmerized by the sight of his ugly, scarred, powerful face.

"Men who love freedom!" he began. "Our hopes have been fulfilled. We now know of a place where we can found a new Norway, a kingdom where courage will never lose its luster, and no king will ever dare to look upon the Old Ways with contempt."

Ingvar Haraldson leaned back, and a content smile appeared on his thin lips."

"Well, the wheels have begun to turn," he told Freydis quietly. "Thus, I can conjecture that my work here is one for now. Tomorrow I shall be back on my way to Trondheim."

His serene, matter-of-fact words sounded like a deafening rumble of thunder to Freydis.

"What?" she cried out. "What about me? I cannot go back to Trondheim. If I meet Leif or my mother now they will never let me out of their sight again. They must be looking for me, and - "

"No, of course you cannot go back with me," Ingvar said calmly, "you must remain here."

"You cannot leave me here alone," Freydis said through gritted teeth.

"You will not be alone," Ingvar contradicted her. He sounded faintly amused and a little bored. "The place is full of excited adventurers and conspirators who will want to hear all about Vinland. And surely you do not doubt Svein Einarson’s hospitality. He would be sorry to see you leave so soon."

"In other words," said Freydis in mounting fury, "you got me involved in a dangerous plan, and now that things are warming up, you slip away to your safe corner and allow others to do all the dirty work."

Haraldson’s feathers were not so easily ruffled, though. "Unlike our friend Svein, I am not a rebel with the gift of inflaming the crowd, my dear Freydis," he said. "Most of my work is done in secret. I collect information and hoard it or pass it on as needed, I make connections between the right people, I saw ideas. Most of the glory I leave to others. I am not an excessively ambitious man, but I am a practical one. I know my limits."

"Coward," Freydis said through gritted teeth.

"Now, do not be so unfair," Haraldson said reasonably. "I take risks too. The king is completely certain I am his man. You can imagine what will happen to me if I am caught. But an overthrow of the existing rule cannot happen without people who are close to the king, people who know all his secrets. Well, I am such a man. I have no blood lust, but know how to pull the right strings. Svein Einarson, on the other hand, is very poor at diplomacy. That is why he needs me just as I need him. We are two sides of the same coin, together."

There was nothing to be done. Freydis could not stop him from going, nor could she join him herself. She had nowhere to go; she would have to stay put. And, despite everything he said, she would remain alone. The thought gave her a queer chill. Though she always saw Ingvar’s insincerity, his presence made her feel, in some way, secure. He was too clever to remain in a place of real danger. So what does it mean if he is leaving?

That night, she pulled the amethyst ring out of the folds of her gown and looked at it long and hard. The red flames flickering in the black depths of the stone were reflected in her wide-open eyes. She saw fire, and the exposed teeth of a snarling wolf in attack. She saw a sword striking, merciless, and a foe falling down. She saw flames taking hold of wooden beams and licking them lustily.

Frightened, she took off the ring, twisting her finger in her haste. This was sickeningly like the black prophecy she had seen in the flames of the Skraeling witch. But no, it cannot be. All I do, I do to make sure it will never happen. She wanted to give power to the people of Greenland, to the one land she saw as her home. She cannot be wrong. I cannot be wrong.

Moreover, there is no way back. When her father and Leif find out about this plan, they will be doubtful at first, she knew. Perhaps they will even call her reckless for associating with Einarson. But once they see how her courage lifts them all to greatness, they will be forced to change their minds. They will no longer be the edge of the world. They will be part of a new kingdom. If Leif doesn’t find me too soon.

She didn’t need to stare into the smoke or flames to know her brother is looking for her. But what she did not know, what didn’t even cross her mind, was that someone else was looking for her as well - someone she didn’t plan to see ever again.